Major Signs Your Company Needs Help from An IT Service Provider

Written by Layer One Networks Published December 24, 2022January 9, 2023

Introduction:

Dependency on technology is essential for business success today. Whether you are a large enterprise, a small business, or somewhere in between, you are using technology to deliver the services or products that keep your business profitable, efficient, and visible.

But what happens when the technology you rely on fails? Without optimized systems and up-to-date IT solutions, your business will struggle to meet the demands of your customers and stay ahead in the marketplace.

Managing your IT infrastructure with limited knowledge and experience can have serious repercussions. It will not only keep you from devoting the time and energy needed to focus on growing your business but could also cost you more money if the wrong solutions are implemented.

When you find yourself in this situation, you most certainly need help from a professional IT services company to ensure your business will operate at its full potential.

Below are some signs indicating you need a professional IT service provider immediately.

When you want to kick-start a digital transformation project, you need an IT services provider who specializes in this area. They will help you identify the necessary changes and create deployment plans that include user training, data migration, and other tasks needed for the successful implementation of digital solutions.

Signs Your Business Needs IT Services Company

Your Systems are Outdated:

You may find yourself in a situation where your current systems are not meeting the demands of your business. Outdated software and hardware, legacy systems, and lack of integration can stress your team. This may result in slowing down operations and hampering employees’ productivity.

Professionally managed IT service providers support the business transition from legacy systems to modern IT solutions. From securing new solutions to implementing them and providing ongoing support, IT support companies have the skills to keep your systems up and running smoothly.

Your Cybersecurity Measures are Lagging:

If you were busy setting up multiple systems and installing hardware for your business, your cybersecurity had likely taken a backseat. Without a solid cybersecurity strategy to withstand modern cyber threats, your business can suffer from a breach, data loss, or any other security incidents causing your clients to lose faith in your business.

A cybersecurity plan offered by a professional data security services provider involves a selection of security tools that can detect, monitor, and prevent security issues. It also involves educating your staff on safe cyber practices, such as phishing and social engineering, to minimize the risk of a cyber attack and loss of sensitive information.

Your Business is Growing Too Fast:

If your business has considerably grown in the past few months, you may need to add more resources to keep up with the demand. Also, your existing network infrastructure and hardware may lack the speed and capacity to support the increased workload.

A growing business should have an IT infrastructure that is easily scalable and can be modified or upgraded quickly as needed. An imbalance between your workload and resources will often mean inefficiency, lack of productivity, and poor customer service.

To accommodate all of your IT needs during fast business growth, you will need the help of a professional IT support team with experience in designing and implementing an infrastructure that can grow along with your business.

Your IT Staff is Overwhelmed:

Even if you have your dedicated IT setup, your team may need more knowledge and skills to manage certain IT tasks. Or your strength may be inadequate to keep up with the demand of your business growth.

A growing business generally needs a big team of IT professionals with different specialties and experience to provide around-the-clock support. But this setup is homologously expensive and only a viable option for some businesses.

So what do you do if you cannot afford a full-time IT staff? The answer is to offload some of your IT management needs to an experienced IT service provider. Not only will this cost you less, but you can get the technical skills of an entire team to solve all your IT issues causing less stress on your team.

Your IT Issues are Causing Down-Time:

Using sophisticated technology for operations and support can benefit your business. However, it can result in costly downtime if you cannot troubleshoot or fix issues as soon as they arise. In most cases, this happens because you need more familiarity with the technology and thus need to either consult manuals or reach out to vendors for assistance.

The longer your business remains out of service, the more time you and your team will put in to compensate for the lost hours. And at times, it may also happen that your business will never be able to recover from the downtime.

By relying on an experienced IT service provider, you will get a team of professionals who can detect and fix IT issues quickly and with minimal disruption to your operations or customers. This way, you can stay competitive without incurring any major losses.

Your IT Strategies are Not Coherent:

Businesses generally use IT services to grow their business, but they need help understanding how it can be correctly implemented to reach their strategic goals efficiently. With the ever-growing technology and constant evolution of options, it is often difficult for a business owner to know the scope of options available to create a competitive edge.

To make the most of this growth, you need an IT consulting firm to educate you on the latest hardware and software options and how to use them for your benefit. They can also help you develop the right strategies to prevent delays and bottlenecks in the future and align IT solutions with your business objectives.

Your Business is Going Digital:

Digital transformation helps businesses redefine their operations, making them more efficient and cost-effective. However, if the transformation takes place without proper roll-out plans and strategies, it can cause chaos in your business operations and damage your staff morale.

Strengthen Your IT Infrastructure with a Professional IT Services Company:

When running a business, dealing with technical issues is the last thing you want. However, without the right IT solutions, you may be more involved in tackling IT issues rather than focusing on what matters most – driving the business forward.

Do not let your IT troubles slow down your business. Instead, get in touch with Layer One Networks, the leading IT support and services provider in Corpus Christi, TX. Our IT professionals specialize in solving companies’ technical problems with long-term cost-effective solutions.

IT Consulting

Tips on How to Switch IT Service Provider Hassle-Free

Written by Layer One Networks Published April 10, 2021May 12, 2023

When your current managed IT services aren’t performing as well as you wanted and you’re left scrambling to make things work, it can be a real hassle.

It can either be the communication issues, lack of expertise or resources available. Whatever the underlying reason, maybe, when the IT services you hired aren’t adding value to your business as intended, then it’s time to make a switch.

When you’re thinking about switching IT companies, you want to make sure that no such problem gets repeated.

Wondering how you can find such a reliable IT consulting firm to work with your business and switch to them? Here are a few things that you should consider.

5 Things to Do When Switching the IT Service Providers

When you’re switching to a new company providing managed IT services, you want to improve the current process. The below points detail how to look for a new one and transition smoothly from your old provider.

Acquire Full Control

Many IT service providers have complete control of your accounts and networks, including usernames and passwords. Before you switch to a new one, you should make sure to gain full access to all your accounts and, if possible, change the access codes and passwords.

While most IT companies wouldn’t cause any issues like locking you out of the accounts when they’re fired, but it’s always better to do so.

Once you’ve gained completed access, the next step is to acquire all the IT records they’ve maintained about your company. This is essential to make sure that your new IT service provider has enough data and documentation to start the work soon and get familiar with the infrastructure. The documentation also gives you an idea of the work done by the current service provider.

Create Backup

While you may already have created a backup system, it’s essential to create a separate backup just for the transition. This backup will contain all the information and documents that the current IT provider has access to.

There are so many things that are not in our control and having a backup will ensure that you always have a fallback option when things don’t go your way.

Look at Your Current Service Agreement

When you’re entering into a contract with an IT consulting firm, you would’ve signed an agreement that detailed all the scope of the service.

This would include the services they offer, the access to software that comes under the monthly fixed cost, the access to documents and the important one, the duration of the agreement.

If you’re terminating the agreement after completing the term duration, you won’t have any problem. If you’re hiring a new IT service provider before the term of the previous one, then you may have to pay an additional fee that would compensate for the rest of the agreement duration.

Make sure to be aware of how much you have to pay and calculate if this is something that you’re ready to bear.

Create a Process Flow for the Transition

When you’re shifting between IT companies, there’s so much information transfer required.

This is why having a process flow and a procedure for this transition will come in handy. You can send out printed information about transferring the login details and the network from the old one to the new one.

Ensure sufficient information for your current provider to have enough time to collect the information and get ready to move the data.

Facilitate Communication Between Both the Companies

Some businesses transfer the IT infrastructure’s control to themselves first before shifting it to a new provider. However, this can be a tedious process, especially when you don’t have a sufficiently equipped in-house IT team. The new provider may have lots of questions for you that your old provider can only answer.

When you’re transferring the power of handling your networks and IT systems directly between the two companies, you can cut out a lot of back-channel talks and pass on the information quickly. However, this is easier said than done since the old provider may not be happy to cooperate as much as you require.

This is when you need to mediate the transition and smoothen things out and facilitate proper communication.

9 Tips to Find the Right IT Service Provider

After your unsatisfactory experience with the managed IT services, it’s time to be cautious enough when searching for a new one. Here are a few things to look out for in an IT company.

Look for a local IT company if you prefer face-to-face meetings.
A clear and transparent service agreement with no hidden fine print.
Open communication channels and feedback responses.
Quick, reliable team compromising of engineers, developers, designers, managers and experts.
Ability to scale the IT system as and when required and accommodate your growing IT needs.
Knowledge of your current software and vendors and expertise in new technologies for future implementation.
Ability to quickly take over the transition from an old IT company free of charge.
Proposes minimal or no downtime during the transition and lays out the supporting documentation to prove the same.
A self-starting team can take a load of the transition work and quickly get the information without making your job harder.

Wrapping Up

Any business performance hinges majorly on the IT team and its efficiency. With the right IT service provider, you can create several automated processes, simplify handling data, and leverage the IT systems to your advantage. When your current provider isn’t meeting your expectations, it’s best to cut your losses and find a new one with better experience and capability.

If you’re looking for a reliable company offering managed IT services in Corpus Christi, then reach out to our consultants at LayerOne Networks now.

IT services

7 Reasons for Hiring an IT Services Provider for Your Business

Written by Layer One Networks Published March 13, 2021May 12, 2023

Emerging technology.

A secure IT system.

Simplified IT processes.

All of these are the need of the hour for every business.

But when we consider a startup or a small-scale business, the overhead costs of such IT systems can be so huge that it takes up a massive chunk of the revenue. This is when we need to add one more factor to the list.

Affordable IT solutions.

For businesses who want a well-maintained, cutting-edge IT system but don’t have a lot of capital to begin with, hiring an IT provider is the best option. Moving from in-house managed IT services to getting the help of IT consulting firms can have a lot of perks.

Let’s look at some of the main reasons why you should do so.

Why Should You Outsource Your IT Services?

Just imagine the amount of reliance your business has on your IT system. Everything depends on your IT system from interactions with customers and managing the finances to business projects. Just imagine what would happen if it stops working all of a sudden.

Scary, isn’t it?

To avoid the unthinkable, you can hire a dedicated IT service provider to make sure that your IT systems are up and running in their best state.

At LayerOne Networks, we provide IT solutions and security service to businesses in Corpus Christi. We have seen a good many occasions where outsourced IT services have saved businesses on many occasions.

In this blog, our IT experts will discuss some practical reasons why outsourcing your IT services is the best way.

1. Focus Completely on the Core Business

When you’re running a business, there are so many responsibilities that would take away your focus from the core purpose. Outsourcing such jobs that others can do is the best way to manage the overload of additional work.

Even when you have a good in-house IT team, you need to keep recruiting more and more employees with different expertise to keep updated with the latest technology. Else, your current employees will feel overworked and drained, which is a red sign for organizational growth. This could also keep you worked up and lead you to focus on managing these difficulties instead of your main responsibilities.

You can outsource your IT services to a good external provider and focus 100% on the core business tasks requiring your attention.

2. Get Round-the-Clock Support

An IT system needs to run 24X7 even when you aren’t using it. There can be no downtime as security threats or system failures can come up at any time. This means you have to be always on your watch and should also be capable of managing these issues when they crop up.

This is when having an expert support team 24X7 pays off. The outsourced team will detect and handle any such vulnerabilities or issues quickly and keep your system safe.

3. Manage Your Scaling Needs

When you’re planning to scale your business, you need to scale your IT system too. When you have an outsourced IT provider handling your systems, you can easily scale without worries about procuring additional equipment, hiring new employees and other resources.

4. Keep the Risk Factors at Bay

There are several ways through which your IT system can be put at risk. Not updating the software, not optimizing the processes or missing to check for security can all lead to one thing – making your business vulnerable.

You need to implement high-security features, check for software updates, monitor your cloud systems, run regular maintenance checks and keep your IT system healthy to avoid risks. This is when an IT outsourced team will be of immense help to do all of these tasks without any initiation from your side.

5. Have a Predictable and Manageable IT Budget

In any business, predicting revenue and expenses is always a challenging task. When you hire IT consulting firms for outsourcing, you will clearly know how much you’ll be spending on IT systems for the next few months.

Not only that, you will have a manageable budget that is affordable to your business and doesn’t eat away at your revenue.

6. Create Room for Technological Innovation

The influence of technology on businesses is swiftly expanding. The technology we are using today is not the same as the one we were using five years ago. Your business needs to keep up with these technological innovations to get a strong foothold in the market.

Having an expert IT team on the go will ensure that you can innovate as much as you can without worrying about implementing new technology.

7. Take Proactive Solutions

It’s one thing to get support after an issue strikes. But it’s a totally different advantage when you can detect and prevent the problem from happening in the first place.

The outsourced IT team will monitor your systems regularly and conduct regular security checks. This ensures that we can detect any vulnerability before it becomes a huge issue and make steps for its prevention.

Wrapping Up

Deciding on outsourcing your IT system management is a huge thing. But when you look at the huge list of benefits it can make for your business, it’s clear that this is the way to go. You can cut down your operational costs while getting expert advice and high-quality IT maintenance with options for scalability without any additional efforts from your side.

If you are looking for a reliable IT service provider in Corpus Christi, you can now speak to our IT experts to find how we can help your business.

Signs Your Business Needs IT Services Company

Your Systems are Outdated:

Your Cybersecurity Measures are Lagging:

Your Business is Growing Too Fast:

Your IT Staff is Overwhelmed:

Your IT Issues are Causing Down-Time:

Your IT Strategies are Not Coherent:

Your Business is Going Digital:

Strengthen Your IT Infrastructure with a Professional IT Services Company:

5 Things to Do When Switching the IT Service Providers

Acquire Full Control

Create Backup

Look at Your Current Service Agreement

Create a Process Flow for the Transition

Facilitate Communication Between Both the Companies

9 Tips to Find the Right IT Service Provider

Wrapping Up

Why Should You Outsource Your IT Services?

1. Focus Completely on the Core Business

2. Get Round-the-Clock Support

3. Manage Your Scaling Needs

4. Keep the Risk Factors at Bay

5. Have a Predictable and Manageable IT Budget

6. Create Room for Technological Innovation

7. Take Proactive Solutions

Wrapping Up